Hacker News Reader

Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure what the full elements of this are, but in a somewhat similar situation (Georgian Land Rents), an approach often proposed is that taxes be made on the stated value of the land, subject to the provision that the taxing authority may opt instead to buy the property at that value. It's possible for a landowner to lowball value, but they risk losing the property, at a below-market rate, if they do so.

(The taxing authority might hold the property itself, or turn around and sell it to a third party, at market rates.)

View on HN

This seems an ingenious rule to address conflicting interests indeed. However, I don't see it applicable to many taxable goods, unfortunately. Some goods, although of high value, require operating costs even and (more importantly) expertise in order for that value to be maintained and realized. For example, a hotel is an active asset that incurs operational costs and therefore its potential acquisition prospect may be shunned by anyone not in the hospitality industry, but still, a taxing authority can make some arrangement for another actor to operate the asset on its behalf. (This I think is in fact how the rule was been thought to work, for things like arable land, where the acquired land could be sold or leased to another peasant.) This is not as easy when the need for expertise comes into play, like it would with a research lab, for example, because the research lab may be one of its kind.

Keep in mind that we're talking, in general here about typical commercial retail: storefronts, restaurant space, small markets, possibly office or light industrial space. Not highly-specialised large-scale hospitality, scientific labs, heavy industry, etc. Yes, those exist, yes, there are vacancies, but *the typical case is going to be pretty quotidian. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the sufficient.

For what it's worth, one of the specialised use-cases probably more likely to be encountered is large-volume food retail, a/k/a supermarkets or grocers. These have distinctive footprints, refrigeration, stocking capabilities, and the like. A few years ago the failure of a large regional grocery brand in the US resulted in numerous commercial vacancies of precisely this nature. There was some controversy when the successor to the chain held on to many of those parcels for years. There were still numerous vacancies at three years after final closing, several locations were demolished entirely, and the last property wasn't repurposed until six years after the original chain had failed. This despite pressure and desire to provide grocery services in the area. As the successor company was also a grocery chain (with operations in the area), stalling transfer of the properties was effectively a way of hamstringing their competition. The space wasn't easily converted to other uses (this happens, Sports Basement at the former Presidio PX in San Francisco is an example, a former A&P supermarket in NYC converted to a community center another), and food retailers hoping to expand had few other options. Notably, despite exploding vacancies in non-food retail, former strip-malls and shopping centres can't easily convert other retail space to groceries.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com